So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.

so ought the husbands to love their own wives as their own bodies: he who is loving his own wife, himself he doth love;

So too married men ought to love their wives as much as they love themselves. He who loves his wife loves himself.

Even so it is right for husbands to have love for their wives as for their bodies. He who has love for his wife has love for himself:

That is how husbands ought to love their wives – as if they were their own bodies. A man who loves his wife is really loving himself;

Ita viri debent diligere suas uxores, tanquam sua corpora. Qui diligit uxorem suam, se ipsum diligit.

He that loveth his wife. An argument is now drawn from nature itself, to prove that men ought to love their wives. Every man, by his very nature, loves himself. But no man can love himself without loving his wife. Therefore, the man who does not love his wife is a monster. The minor proposition is proved in this manner. Marriage was appointed by God on the condition that the two should be one flesh; and that this unity may be the more sacred, he again recommends it to our notice by the consideration of Christ and his church. Such is the amount of his argument, which to a certain extent applies universally to human society. To shew what man owes to man, Isaiah says, "hide not thyself from thine own flesh." (Isaiah 58:7.) But this refers to our common nature. Between a man and his wife there is a far closer relation; for they not only are united by a resemblance of nature, but by the bond of marriage have become one man. Whoever considers seriously the design of marriage cannot but love his wife.

So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies - Because they are one flesh; Ephesians 5:31. This is the subject on which Paul had been speaking, and from which he had been diverted by the allusion to the glorified church. The doctrine here is, that a husband should have the same care for the comfort of his wife which he has for himself. He should regard her as one with himself; and as he protects his own body from cold and hunger, and, when sick and suffering, endeavors to restore it to health, so he should regard and treat her.
He that loveth his wife loveth himself -
(1) Because she is one with him, and their interests are identified.
(2) because, by this, he really promotes his own welfare, as much as he does when he takes care of his own body. A man's kindness to his wife will be more than repaid by the happiness which she imparts; and all the real solicitude which he shows to make her happy, will come to more than it costs. If a man wishes to promote his own happiness in the most effectual way, he had better begin by showing kindness to his wife.

As their own bodies - For the woman is, properly speaking, a part of the man; for God made man male and female, and the woman was taken out of his side; therefore is she flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone; and therefore, he that loveth his wife loveth himself, for they two are one flesh. The apostle, in all these verses, refers to the creation and original state of the first human pair.

(14) So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
(14) Another argument: every man loves himself, even by nature: therefore he strives against nature that does not love his wife. He proves the conclusion, first by the mystical knitting of Christ and the Church together, and then by the ordinance of God, who says that man and wife are as one, that is, not to be divided.

So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies,.... It is a common saying with the Jews, that a man's wife is "as his own body" (r); and it is one of the precepts of their wise men, that a man should honour his wife more than his body, , and "love her as his body" (s); for as they also say, they are but one body (t); the apostle seems to speak in the language of his countrymen; however, his doctrine and theirs agree in this point: wherefore
he that loveth his wife loveth himself; because she is one body and flesh with him.
(r) T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 24. 1. & Becorot, fol. 35. 2. Maimon. Hilchot Becorot, c. 2. sect. 17. Tzeror Hammor, fol. 18. 2. (s) T. Bab. Yebamot, fol. 62. 2. & Sanhedrin, fol. 76. 2. Derech Eretz, fol. 17. 4. Maimon Hilchot Ishot, c. 15. sect. 19. (t) Tzeror Hammor, fol. 6. 3.

Translate, "So ought husbands also (thus the oldest manuscripts read) to love their own (compare Note, see on Ephesians 5:22) wives as their own bodies."
He that loveth his wife loveth himself--So there is the same love and the same union of body between Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5:30, Ephesians 5:32).

So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. The church is the Bride of the Lamb, but it is also Christ's body. As he loved his body, so every husband ought to love her who by the mystery of the marriage tie has become "bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh" (Genesis 2:23).
No man ever yet hated his own flesh. Or his own body. Yet, wife and husband are "one flesh" (Ephesians 5:31).
We are members of his body. We are all members of Christ's body, the church. But the church is his Bride. Hence the language of Genesis 2:23, where Adam declares that his wife "is bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh," applies to our relation to Christ.

As their own bodies - That is, as themselves. He that loveth his wife loveth himself - Which is not a sin, but an indisputable duty.